Members of the Canadian Association of Postdoctoral Administrators include senior academic administrators and staff responsible for postdoctoral issues at universities and research organizations across Canada. Others interested in these issues (representatives of funding organizations, and of postdoctoral organizations) can be Associate Members.

CAPA News and Information

Concerns have been raised about labor market imbalances that see a growing number of postdoctoral researchers pursuing a limited number of faculty positions (1–4). Proposed demand-side solutions include capping the duration of postdoc training or hiring more permanent staff scientists (1, 4, 5). Others focus on the supply side, arguing that Ph.D.'s need better information about labor market conditions and nonacademic career options (4, 6, 7).

Postdoctoral Fellows (PDFs) are innovation engines driving science, technology, discovery, and change. They have become critical to the cutting edge research being done at Canadian universities. This was a key message echoing throughout the 2015 Annual General Meeting of the Canadian Association of Postdoctoral Scholars (CAPS-ACSP) held jointly with the 2015 Canadian Association of Postdoctoral Administrators (CAPA) conference.

This report examines the employment opportunities and outcomes of PhD holders inside and outside academia, the state of professional skills development for PhD students, and examples of professional development initiatives in Canada and peer countries.

Member Institutions News and Information

Postdoctoral Scholars are valued members of the university community. As trained researchers, they have the opportunity to make significant contributions to both the research environment of the University and to their chosen field.

At the University of Calgary postdocs are valued members of our community, and make indispensable contributions to academic research. Our program includes one-of-a-kind funding and fellowship opportunities that enable postdocs to pursue world-changing research.

Deepen your expertise, further your research, and launch your career with a postdoctoral fellowship in association with the University of Toronto.

Our Mission and Vision

The Mission is to promote and enhance the contributions of Postdoctoral Scholars, (so as) to advance the knowledge-based society. The Vision is that CAPA will:

Represent the large majority of institutions (or universities) hosting Postdoctoral Scholars in Canada;

Be a leading voice in Canada for Postdoctoral issues

Be recognized as an authoritative source on Postdoctoral issues in Canada;

Improve the context for success for Postdoctoral Scholars in Canada

Members of the Canadian Association of Postdoctoral Administrators include senior academic administrators and staff responsible for postdoctoral issues at universities and research organizations across Canada. Others interested in these issues (representatives of funding organizations, and of postdoctoral organizations) can be Associate Members.